A contractors group has welcomed a bipartisan House bill placed in the hopper last month aimed at curbing agency use of lowest price technically acceptable contracts.

The Promoting Value Based Procurement Act (H.R. 3019), introduced by Reps. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., and Don Beyer, D-Va., would amend the Federal Acquisition Regulation to require civilian agencies to align themselves with the Defense Department and stiffen their rationales for resorting to lowest price technically acceptable (LPTA) contracts, which have grown in use in recent years but are controversial.

“Price should not be the sole deciding factor when the federal government is purchasing complex, innovative information technology and engineering systems, where the least expensive option often may not lead to the best long-term value,” Beyer said in a statement to Government Executive. “We can help spur innovation by allowing contractors for certain high-tech procurements to compete on the strengths of their products, not the cost.”

Professional services contracts are going to dominate the field in 2017. That’s the biggest takeaway from Bloomberg Government’s Top 20 Opportunities in Federal Contracting.

Nine out of the top 20 contract opportunities in 2017 will be professional services, with a total potential value of $142 billion.

Chief among these contracts is GSA’s OASIS, valued at $60 billion. Although OASIS was awarded in 2014, BGOV expects at least one more on-ramp in 2017, as well as the potential for on-ramps to sub-pools requested by agencies. In addition, BGOV said GSA will likely face pressure to allow more small businesses into the program.

The General Services Administration (GSA) recently announced its intention to further promote the consolidation of professional services contracts by encouraging agencies to transition from expiring, one-off contracts to multiple-award contracting vehicles.

The announcement comes on the heels of GSA’s October 1, 2015 announcement that it would be consolidating eight separate schedules into a new Professional Services Schedule (PSS) that will allow federal government agencies to use one contracting vehicle to fulfill a host of professional services requirements.

With many professional services contracts set to expire in Fiscal Year 2016, GSA is actively encouraging agencies to re-compete the contracts using existing agency indefinite delivery indefinite quantity contracts (IDIQ), GSA schedule contracts, such as the PSS, or GSA’s OASIS contracting vehicle, an IDIQ contract meant for professional services.

Professional, scientific and technical services, with about $141 billion.

Administration and support, waste management and remediation, with about $43 billion.

Construction, with about $35.44 billion.

But within that massive chunk of contract spending, how much is making its way to small business? For three of the four categories, not enough to meet the federal goal of 23 percent, according to the report.

The General Services Administration (GSA) is considering adding cost-reimbursable options to its supply schedules, according to a top agency official.

Tom Sharpe, the commissioner of GSA’s Federal Acquisition Service, said in a statement to Federal Times that the agency is conducting an assessment on “a wide array of issues, and will not be a short-term action.”

He added that GSA’s planned OASIS contract vehicle for professional services will offer a cost-reimbursable option available to agencies, and GSA plans to award the contract soon.

Contracts on the GSA federal supply schedules currently use time-and-materials and fixed-price pricing terms.

Georgia Tech’s professional education unit is again offering “Mission Focused Contracting” — perhaps the most popular of all government contracting courses — during the last two weeks of September 2013.

Conducted by The Contracting Education Academy at Georgia Tech, the course covers the entire federal acquisition process and is invaluable for both business people as well as government contracting officials.

From a business perspective, this course is a boot camp that’s designed to provide insights and details about the government’s entire acquisition process. Business people will leave this course better prepared to submit bids for government work, creating a positive impact on business growth and bottom line.

From a government standpoint, this Defense Acquisition University-equivalent course — that satisfies FAC-C and DAWIA certification requirements — educates contracting officers on the entire acquisition process, from initial meetings with internal customers to completing the contract closeout process — and everything in-between.

All participants have the opportunity to learn and apply problem-solving and negotiation skills in a highly-interactive class setting.

Formally known as CON 120 – Mission Focused Contracting, this course includes a complete review of CON 110, 111 and 112, on-line courses that are normally prerequisites for CON 120. Because a review of CON 110, 111 and 112 is built-in to Georgia Tech’s CON 120 offering, students are not required to complete any prerequisites.

Consider the benefits for students from both the government and private sectors:

The contract vehicle, known as One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services, or OASIS, would include contracts for accounting, communication, security and transportation, among other services.

OASIS would be an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract that would last 10 years in its first incarnation, according to the draft RFPs. GSA’s two draft solicitions were a general RFP and another focused on small businesses.

When it comes to the final details of the General Services Administration’s new professional services contract, One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services, or OASIS, “everything is in play,” said Jim Ghiloni, GSA’s OASIS program manager.

Although he provided few concrete details about OASIS, he did unveil its timetable for the first time.

While no dollar value has been attached to the contract’s ceiling, the government spent $79.5 billion on professional services during fiscal 2010, according to GSA data.

Integrations will be a multiple-agency indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract. The Integrations contract is expected to include commercial and non-commercial services, that may include program management and consulting services. GSA is also considering having logistics services, professional engineering services and financial services on the menu. GSA is designing the contract vehicle to address needs for professional services that span several types of services that are often difficult to specify or quantify before making an award. However, the contract will elevate risk as a result, wrote Lisa McGuire, program manager for Integrations.

Mary Davie, assistant FAS commissioner for the Integrated Technology Service, said GSA’s Schedules program offers technology and other professional services on an a la carte basis. But agencies want more.

“Agencies have asked us to provide a total professional services solution, which often requires acquisition of multiple services across separate functional areas,” she wrote Feb. 21 on her Great Government Through Technology blog.

Davie said agencies want flexibility. About half of all government spending on complex integrated professional services in fiscal 2010 took place under cost-type contracts.

“That is why we are planning to include all task-order types in Integrations, including cost reimbursement,” she wrote.

Officials intend to make the acquisition process more flexible for all sorts of contract-type task orders and other direct costs at the task-order level, McGuire wrote.

At this point, the Integrations program team is working on a project schedule.

So far though, officials have said they are developing a customer working group, and, for industry, they plan to post draft documents for feedback as the working group meets. GSA wants to make the acquisition planning process to include input from industry and customers. GSA also has to register the contract vehicle with OMB’s MAX Federal website.

Davie is planning a “Tweet Chat” Feb. 29 from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. She wants to interact with customer agencies and industry on a range of topics about Integrations. She will be answering tweets to @GSA_ITS with the hashtag #ITSChat.